‘Could it be that I got close without making a sound…’
Becoming increasingly anxious, Basileon approached the front of Evien again. Her eyelashes beautifully extended, covering her eyes. The twin moles under her eyes were cute. The slightly flushed cheeks looked truly human. And the lips…
‘….’
Basileon quietly brushed away the thoughts in his head. It was when he was about to turn his head away again.
‘Wait.’
He raised one eyebrow as he discovered something. The reason Evien looked more like a human than before. Her form was not transparent at all. No matter how he looked, there was no part where objects could be seen through her.
‘That can’t be.’
Basileon called Evien’s name.
“Eve.”
To grasp the situation, he had to wake her up.
“Evien!”
“Umm…”
Evien rubbed her eyes and barely woke up from her sleep.
“Are you awake?”
She sat on the sofa like a real human and leaned back naturally.
“Uh… Basileon?”
“What happened earlier?”
As if awakened by Basileon’s question, Evien looked around.
“Ah.”
“The transparency of your body. Right now, to my eyes, you look no different from a human…”
Evien fumbled over her body. Then, she tensed her muscles to fly into the air. She usually could fly easily with just a light exertion of strength, but her body wouldn’t move at all. As a result, she looked like a bird flapping its wings, wanting to fly but unable to.
“…Eve?”
“Uh… Ugh!”
She ruffled her hair as if shocked by her own condition.
“Why are you bothering your hair that was staying still?”
“Th… That’s because.”
She clenched her palms tightly and then stretched them out. It was a slightly nervous attitude. Then, she looked at Basileon with a somewhat bashful gaze.
“Basileon. By any chance, would you want to try… holding my hand?”
“….”
Although doubtful, Basileon lightly placed his hand over her palm as requested. However, the sensation of soft flesh was felt. Basileon frowned, thinking something was wrong. And he fumbled with her hand.
‘What is this…’
Basileon traced up her thumb, index finger… one by one, and then caressed the indentations between her fingers. And he swept over her palm and intertwined their fingers.
“Uh…”
As a result, he ended up making eye contact with Evien, whose face was slightly flushed.
“I-if you… touch me like that too much….”
Basileon flinched at Evien’s reaction and stepped back.
“Could it be that I’m dreaming?”
“No.”
“If so, is it an illusion created by It?”
“It’s not that either.”
Basileon thoroughly examined her, who had become a human right before his eyes, with his gaze. Her slightly stiffened expression, as if nervous, was very vivid. Her bashful reaction, not knowing what to do with her hand raised in the air. The evil god couldn’t imitate such emotions. The person standing in front of him was definitely Evien. Basileon’s thought circuit stopped, and he froze in place.
“…Haha. What’s wrong.”
Noticing that, Evien playfully approached Basileon.
“Your reaction is like you absolutely can’t believe I’ve become a human.”
She raised one hand and caressed Basileon’s face.
“It’s soft and warm.”
Basileon was completely frozen, shocked by the unfamiliar sensation.
“I thought I wanted to touch your face if I ever became a human… I didn’t know it would be today.”
While caressing Basileon’s cheek, she felt the sharp touch dropping from his forehead to the bridge of his nose. Her hand passed over his nose and dropped to his lips.
“….”
Evien couldn’t bring herself to stroke his lips and tried to withdraw her hand as it was. However, Basileon stopped her.
“Ah.”
As if hoping her hand wouldn’t leave his face, he carefully grabbed Evien’s hand.
“…Basileon?”
Evien became a little distressed. It was because a transparent liquid was flowing down from under Basileon’s eyelashes. The flowing liquid also touched Evien’s hand wrapping around his cheek. Basileon’s hand overlapping hers was very hot. Tears flowed down, wetting their two hands, but he didn’t seem to want to let go. Evien waited for Basileon, who was crying silently.
* * *
After a little time passed, Basileon barely opened his eyes.
“It’s not a dream.”
The atmosphere of Basileon with his eyes open was pitiful yet unfamiliar. The corners of his eyes were moist and softly glistening.
Sniff sniff—.
A pleasant fragrance also wafted from him. Did he spray perfume or something? He smelled of flowers. I searched for Basileon’s original body odor amidst that fragrance. A soft, nice scent.
“I really… didn’t know the moment would come when I could feel your warmth.”
He opened his eyes slowly and seemed to be reminiscing about the past.
“I fell into despair after you said evil spirits could never touch humans. I thought you were trying to distance yourself from me.”
“…Huh?”
“Do you remember when I said I didn’t care what form you took?”
I recalled what Basileon said last time. That he didn’t care whether I was an evil spirit, a human, or where I came from.
“I remember.”
“The human heart is not easily defined, but a shallow heart that changes according to the other person’s external changes cannot be called deep emotion.”
I met his burning gaze.
“The reality of not being able to touch you felt cruel, but my feelings never changed in the end.”
A warm sensation spreading from deep within my heart circulated throughout my body. But to think such an issue was not important to Basileon. That can’t be…
“That is an important issue, and not only the change in appearance, but the inability to touch is a very big problem. Especially for someone like me… I mean…”
Why go that far for me? Once again, a piece of the past slowly surfaced in my head.
“The cleaning closet. The classroom suited for your level is right here.”
“Don’t think about eating anything delicious with your status. Isn’t it right for you to eat the food waste we left behind?”
“Something worse than garbage.”
“That’s why you must have been abandoned by your family too. A kid like you shouldn’t have been born.”
The voices evaluating my worth came to mind. I tightly closed my eyes at the terrible memory. However, what Basileon said was unexpected.
“Someone like you. I don’t know what that’s supposed to mean. Are you trying to say that even though you died and became an evil spirit, you moved my heart enough to transcend such a reality?”
Before I knew it, my heart was beating.
“That the inability to touch is a big problem… No. As I said earlier, I liked just looking at you. Of course, it might be a little disappointing, but even taking that into account, my feelings remained the same.”
Right now, my heart was not beating out of fear. It wasn’t a beating heart from anxiety like when I was bullied. It was beating for a completely different reason now.
“If my feelings had cooled down upon facing such a reality, it wouldn’t have been a deep emotion in the first place. But I am still the same. No, rather, it’s growing bigger.”
Clear tears slowly trickled down Basileon’s cheek. Right now, Basileon looked more like a princess from a fairy tale than me. The protagonist crying pitifully and sorrowfully after going through a trial.
“You are pretty even when you cry.”
I smiled brightly and wiped away his tears.
“Thank you. For liking me… no matter what situation I’m in.”
When I smiled first, Basileon also smiled slightly.
“But you know, they say if you laugh after crying, horns will grow on your butt.”
“Hmm… Will you hate me if that happens?”
The moment I was about to answer Basileon’s words.
20 seconds remaining for the 〈Temporary Humanization〉 skill duration.
“Ah.”
“…Eve?”
Basileon noticed the smile disappearing from my face. I eventually went “uh, uh,” and lost consciousness. And.
Poof—.
When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to being an evil spirit as expected.
“Wow. Wahaha. I knew this would happen.”
I made a crying face because it was a pity, but Basileon looked fine.
“As expected… becoming a human for a while was a temporary symptom.”
“Aren’t you disappointed?”
I grumbled and asked for no reason.
“….”
Basileon avoided my gaze. His whole body was red.
“It would be a lie to say I’m not disappointed.”
Perhaps not wanting to be caught in such a state, Basileon turned his back.
“…Because I was in the middle of thinking, ‘Since it’s come to this, I should have talked less and felt your warmth more’.”
“Ah.”
Actually, I also regretted it similarly to Basileon. 30 minutes really passed by quickly. I should have just hugged him at least. More than anything else, the warm touch. I liked those human interactions. It was brief, but I felt like I had truly become a human, not an evil spirit.
Hi! Thank you for reading this chapter, I hope you enjoyed it. Please continue to support this novel by giving it a good rating on Novel Updates. Thank you! ^^ ❤︎
Comments (0)